Oklahoma: Life In Prison For Hash, 1 Year For Child Rape

[Hash Zeppelin]

This is a few years old but I thought it was worth mentioning again. Just to show the continued absurdity of the American Justice system.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/oklahoma-life-in-prison-for-hash-1-year-for-child-rape

Oklahoma: Life In Prison For Hash, 1 Year For Child Rape

By NORML, Wed, April 27, 2011
By "Radical" Russ Belville

While I was out at the NORML Conference, this bombshell of a story exploded in Oklahoma:

OKLAHOMA CITY — Converting marijuana to hashish could land Oklahomans a life prison sentence under a bill approved in the Oklahoma Senate.

Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward said the goal of the bill is to “send a message” that illegal drugs won’t be tolerated in Oklahoma.

Conviction of a first offense of cooking hashish would result in a prison sentence from two years to life in prison. Sentences would be doubled under a second offense, and those convicted would not be eligible for a suspended sentence or probation.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20110420_336_0_OKLAHO247887

Ah, yes, the OBNDD, the people who brought you the marijuana “fact sheet” that claims pot today is 30 times stronger than Woodstock Weed and it damages brain cells and reproductive organs. Apparently, they feel hashish is so much more dangerous than raw cannabis that we must enact a life sentence for it. Hash is much more potent than cannabis, so I wonder how the OBNDD will react when they discover Schedule III dronabinol (legal even in Oklahoma) is even more potent than hash?

When I read these stories about stiffer sentences for cannabis, I like to compare them to the sentences that most of us will agree are heinous crimes. It turns out that if you make cannabis into hashish or if you serially and violently rape five adult women, you can get a life sentence in Oklahoma.

(Slane & Phillips) An Oklahoma City man who pleaded guilty to five charges of first degree rape in Oklahoma County District Court last October was sentenced late last week. John Earl Stepney, Jr., 33, was given a life sentence without parole for each of the five rapes of which he was convicted.

Oklahoma County District Judge Kenneth Watson sentenced Stepney to life in prison without parole for each of the following Oklahoma City rape incidents:

the November 17, 2008, rape of a woman who was asleep in her apartment
the December 7, 2008, rape of a woman who was attacked as she walked home from work
the December 23, 2008, kidnapping and rape of a woman who was shopping for Christmas at Penn Square Mall
the January 5, 2009, rape of a woman who was doing laundry at her apartment complex
the January 7, 2009, rape of a woman who was vacuuming her car at a car wash
Stepney is accused of forcing two of the women to withdraw cash from their bank accounts at ATMs. He reportedly used a BB gun that looked like a handgun to threaten and coerce his victims.

But if you plead no contest to first-degree rape and forcible sodomy of a four-year-old girl, you may get by with one year in prison.

(USA Today) ALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Two state lawmakers are questioning a plea agreement that will allow a man to serve only one year in jail on a conviction for raping a 4-year-old girl.

Nineteen of the 20 years of a sentence against 64-year-old David Harold Earls were suspended as part of a plea agreement reached with Pittsburg County prosecutors.

Earls pleaded no contest on May 13 to first-degree rape and forcible sodomy. He has spent nearly nine months in jail already and is scheduled to be released Sept. 24. He would serve the remaining 19 years of his sentence under supervised release and would have to register as a sex offender.

(News9.com) The daughter of a convicted rapist speaks out, saying he deserves more than one year behind bars. She says her father deserves a life sentence. David Earls’ rape conviction made national headlines this month after a Pittsburg County judge sentenced him to only one year in prison.

“My father is a monster and he needs to stay, he needs to stay in prison,” said Denise Earls.

Denise Earls says when she was young Earls raped her. She hoped he was finally going to get the punishment he deserved.

“Well I was completely outraged because it brought back all the memories that I went through as a child and just to know that he only got a year when I have a life sentence to deal with this,” said Denise Earls.

Maybe somebody can convince David Earls to make some hash so Oklahoma will seriously consider keeping him in a prison for life.

By the way, in case anyone thinks that hashish is somehow different or more dangerous than raw cannabis, it isn’t. It is still non-toxic with low risk of dependency and tolerable side effects. Here’s the basic difference between regular old pot and hash:

Pot = puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff… whoa, I’m high!

Hash = puff, puff… whoa, I’m high!

That’s it. Hash is a concentrate. It’s not “cooked”, it’s extracted. It’s not transformed into something else. Hash is to cannabis as a frozen can of orange juice mix is to an orange. And for some patients who need extremely high dosages to achieve medical effects, there isn’t the time or lung capacity to take all the puffs of cannabis one needs. For these most-vulnerable patients, hash is a medicine, pure and simple.

 

[theJointedOne]

fuck the police

 

[Littleleaf]

My Home state Love the state not their Fed up laws. They tried to give me 25 years for Attempted cultivation.

left and haven't been back..

 

[Drift13]

Hoping we can change all of this BS in our life time.

 

[StickyStank]

I absolutely hate right wing conservatives and those are people who make those kind of laws. My home state too and I remember it was cool to carry an oz and no laws was broken back during the 70's. OK used to have an excellent home grown crop. There is a famous strain that was sold in pickle jars, 350 bucks for a qp, I think it was called Bad Ass Oklahoma and to this day I wish I knew what strain it was, sticky and very potent sativa. The grower produced it for at least 10 years then got busted up in the hills because for some reason he started putting labels on the pickle jars and I think it pissed off po po. Had excellent imports, Colombian Gold, Colombian Black mostly, Jamaican, Thai Stick, Panama Red, Texas weed was the absolute worse all kinds of seeds and it sucked, Mexican was good most times. But those was the good ole days in Oklahoma until them fukkin Taliban Republicans took over Oklahoma.

 

[OrganicOzarks]

This is why I left.

I have friends that grow there, and I think they are crazy as hell.

 

[StickyStank]

This is why I left.

I have friends that grow there, and I think they are crazy as hell.

Wow, they are crazy but its too bad because there are a lot good people in Oklahoma regardless their politics, lots of good nice people in Oklahoma.

I left right after I turned 19 fresh out of Electronic School. I knew during that time it was not the place for me. Moved East Coast, Peokeepsie NY, worked for IBM, the plant was right next to the Hudson river where it runs clean in the Catskill Mountains, it was a huge culture shock but it was the best move I ever made. Moved to NYC a few years later for 16 years I worked for a mutual fund company and then took another investment job out of the state and been here since. But I love NYC and upstate NY, lots of cool people and googles of beautiful women of many exotic types you don't see in the midwest, lots of mixed couples and mixed kids, gives you hope for the world that we can transcend our issues.

 

[StickyStank]

Poughkeepsie NY, LOL

 

[SneekyFarmer]

I've been in Oklahoma for 14 years now and the laws about growing here are insane! I love oklahoma, even with the crazy laws and tornados.. My place got hit hard earlier this year by high winds and major rain.. Wind speeds of 150 to 200 miles an hour with hail the size of grapefruits! I got ratted on by a family member and caught with 2 plants 11 years ago, they tried to give me 10 years.. It did'nt stop me from growing, only pissed me off and i have grown every year since! Oklahoma's laws are insane but this is my life and we only live once! Life is to short to let ignorance stop us from growing this healing plant, no mater where we live!

 

[OrganicOzarks]

I've been in Oklahoma for 14 years now and the laws about growing here are insane! I love oklahoma, even with the crazy laws and tornados.. My place got hit hard earlier this year by high winds and major rain.. Wind speeds of 150 to 200 miles an hour with hail the size of grapefruits! I got ratted on by a family member and caught with 2 plants 11 years ago, they tried to give me 10 years.. It did'nt stop me from growing, only pissed me off and i have grown every year since! Oklahoma's laws are insane but this is my life and we only live once! Life is to short to let ignorance stop us from growing this healing plant, no mater where we live!

It is just as easy to move to a near by State and be "legal."

 

[StickyStank]

I've been in Oklahoma for 14 years now and the laws about growing here are insane! I love oklahoma, even with the crazy laws and tornados.. My place got hit hard earlier this year by high winds and major rain.. Wind speeds of 150 to 200 miles an hour with hail the size of grapefruits! I got ratted on by a family member and caught with 2 plants 11 years ago, they tried to give me 10 years.. It did'nt stop me from growing, only pissed me off and i have grown every year since! Oklahoma's laws are insane but this is my life and we only live once! Life is to short to let ignorance stop us from growing this healing plant, no mater where we live!

Wow, that is all I can say but you do it because so many super nice people around you, that is the cool thing about Oklahoma but that state needs to go progressive too many good people to have so many hate filled laws on the books, to me its an oxymoron.

I've grown off and on for many years that started in Hackensack NJ in a converted warehouse turned into a home, never had a problem, life was good, I left in 96.

I have all kinds of relatives in OKC and they ask when you going to move back. When I had the chance I would give bud to my cousins and they would be amazed, one time I had a cousin visit me back in NJ and I showed him my grow and he moved a cot in there and slept there the whole week, LOL. We still tight today.

 

[SneekyFarmer]

It is just as easy to move to a near by State and be "legal."

Maybe for some people, yes it would be easier to move and be legal! Moving out of state cost's alot of money and until the economy pick's up again I can't afford to move.. So am I suppose to follow what the law says, or live my life the way I want to? Not everyone can just pack up and move! Lots of oldtimer's around here were moonshiner's, did prohabition stop them from making and running it? I refuse to live in fear!

 

[OrganicOzarks]

Maybe for some people, yes it would be easier to move and be legal! Moving out of state cost's alot of money and until the economy pick's up again I can't afford to move.. So am I suppose to follow what the law says, or live my life the way I want to? Not everyone can just pack up and move! Lots of oldtimer's around here were moonshiner's, did prohabition stop them from making and running it? I refuse to live in fear!

Living in Oklahoma is living in fear. I did it for over 30 years. Once you leave you will never go back.

 

[Seal-Clubber]

Many people from Oklahoma have sex with sheep. If course some grass is life-in-prison and child rape is 1-year.
At least sheep-rape is still legal and therefor many Oklahoma`ns are perfectly happy.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

Living in Oklahoma is living in fear. I did it for over 30 years. Once you leave you will never go back.

I know the feeling. Grew in Texas for a decade before I moved to a med state. 4 years later, and I'm not looking back ever.

 

[FINEUSFUNK]

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has signed legislation, House Bill 1441, into law that criminalizes drivers from operating a motor vehicle if they have any detectable amount of THC and/or its inactive metabolites in their blood, saliva, or urine. Under such internal possession statutes, known as zero tolerance per se laws, a motorist who tests positive for the presence of such compounds is guilty per se (in fact) of a criminal traffic safety violation, regardless of whether or not there exist supporting evidence that the defendant was behaviorally impaired by such compounds.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^Fuck Oklahoma. I boycott the whole state and anything from it.

 

[Slip Kid]

When I was a kid people from Oklahoma came up in the summertime and owned lots of property around us.I'm not sure I've met friendlier more tolerant people, where these laws come from I don't understand because everybody except one guy from Okie were great people.Where I live now the summer people are New Yorkers and they aren't half as nice as Oklahoma folks.I drove back east one summer with maybe a 1/4 oz of weed in an envelope, right through OK, oh boy!! These crazy mean looking bikers from Black Mesa used to bring their weed to my area, mean looking but couldn't hide how nice they really were.I'm sure there's tons of dirtbags but they're everywhere.
My Okie neighbor tried to have the sheriff bust me for growing.The sheriff told him to chill out.Sorry for the essay but it's in my blood, the OK/Texas vs NM/CO thing.

 

[saluki]

I guess ignorance and backwards mentality can be found in every corner of this planet not just where i currently reside. Fuck the law, this is my life, this is our planet. We do as we wish.

 

[lasthippie]

Theres a lot of similar cases..not to mention Asia and Middle-East countries where small amounts gets you death penalty but killing a man.,just a small time in jail if even that.